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A rare red tide bloom on Florida’s northeast coast may have originated in Southwest Florida, scientists said Tuesday.

The east coast blooms, which only occur about once a decade, likely are deposited into the Gulf Stream from the Loop Current, a current that flows clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico, said Cindy Heil, a senior research scientist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

In 1987, several scientists wrote papers about a red tide bloom that traveled from Southwest Florida to North Carolina.

Though only low concentrations of K brevis, the organism that causes red tide, have been found in Lee and Collier counties so far this year, the bloom could have developed en route to the east coast or once it settled in a location, Heil said.

Extremely low amounts of K brevis are always present in waters around Southwest Florida, Heil said. However, a large enough concentration of K brevis to cause respiratory irritation was found off Sanibel Island last week, according to the Fish and Wild Life Research Institute.

Red tide blooms start off shore where the organism feeds on nutrients, Heil said.

Another bloom on Florida’s northwest coast, that is causing fish kills, discolored water and respiratory irritation in areas around Panama City and Pensacola beaches, may have also originated in Southwest Florida, Heil said.

“We don’t know where the northwest bloom originated or where the northeast bloom originated but previous history indicates it was somewhere in Southwest Florida,” she said.

Scientists are split about whether human caused factors feed algae blooms, increasing the occurrence and duration of red tide.

But it’s interesting that during one of South Florida’s worst droughts, there has been limited red tide activity, said Stuart DeCew, a regional representative for the Sierra Club.

Massive algae blooms that lasted several months occurred after heavy hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 produced a deluge of runoff from local basins and Lake Okeechobee, DeCew said.

“We’ve changed the plumbing of the state so much that anytime we get significant rainfall, we have to expect water quality problems,” he said.

Blooms on the northwest and northeast coasts may be a product of increased pressure from urbanization and farming.

“Regardless of where they came from, there is an emerging link between coastal pollution and the intensity and duration of these blooms,” DeCew said. “We need to clean up our water.”

It may be just a matter of time before the low concentrations of K brevis in Southwest Florida bloom into a cloud of red tide, said Rick Bartleson, a research scientist with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.

Nearly all summer, the area has had a strong presence of other algae that could decompose and feed a red tide bloom.

Still, it’s good that the drought is keeping any nutrient-rich discharges from flowing out of Lake Okeechobee, Bartleson said.

“We have a high nutrient system and right now it can’t handle any more,” Bartleson said. “There is already plenty hear for them.”